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Good job saving the universe, ensign. Now, get outside the ship and shoot those sabotaging Idryll in the face.

By Ivan Sulic

It was only a few weeks ago that I was graciously invited down to Activision's Santa Monica offices. Well, after 12 phone calls and the promise that I would gladly hand over the phone number to Daniela Adams (Dan's sister's), gracious was all they could be. I went to see 480576.html" target="_blank">Elite Force II. Once in town, I met up with Activision's Mike Larson, Glenn Ige, and Marc Struhl. After being ushered around the offices and fed some of the best orange juice I've ever had, we all sat down in front of the game for many, many hours. The result was the large body of text you might know as the super gigantic IGN endorsed preview.

If you've been paying attention to the Internet and other gaming publications, you might have noticed an influx of other Elite Force II, seriously less informative previews within the last few days. That's because the press tour allowed everyone else that wasn't me, or nearly as cool and great as me, to see the game, sans the kicking orange juice, of course.

Activision sent out Mike Mantarro and Doug Pearson to show off their latest Star Trek ware to the drooling games writers of the world. Since Dan hasn't yet seen the title in a virtually complete form, and given that we're all enamored by the art and the fiction, we decided to open our doors, fiddle with our feeble demonstration setup and enjoy a little more of what Ritual has to offer. Once Tal mentioned something about the withholding of a paycheck for disobedience and a failure to perform my job, it was decided a second piece of coverage was in order.

Restating the fact that Elite Force II will be substantially longer than the first and reiterating the fact that it will also be substantially prettier is redundant, so today I'm going to focus on mission structure and "the feel." I'll let you browse the previous article for all of the general information you'll ever need. Anyway, as part of the press tour, we saw a few missions of note play out in front of us that were not nearly as complete upon my last viewing. I'm not about to reveal the finale and tell you all how the Zerg hive invades the Federation, but I will let some things slip...

It has been very important to Ritual to create a cohesive experience that delivers the constant action Elite Force II is all about through storytelling that's in keeping with the fiction. Even though everyone with eyes, ears, hands, or any combination of the above will tell you that Elite Force II is nothing like your average Star Trek episode (what with all the shooting and the killing), crafting an intricate plot played out in classic Trek fashion is of paramount importance to the team. But, no amount of story is going to save gameplay that's disjointed. Ritual knows this.

The boys and girls who created SiN are making every effort to keep the action incredibly fast, but to still immerse the player in an objective driven, refined, Trek storyline and universe overflowing with details and noticeable coolness that non-fans (heathens, blasphemers and pagans) might miss out on.

Analyzing a single mission will help you better understand what it's all about. Enemy forces are assaulting the Enterprise. They need to die, but shields, advanced weaponry and sheer numbers are on their side. To begin, Munroe and the hazard team move through some of the vessel's many decks clearing out disrespectful boarding parties who forgot to take off their shoes by igniting fires. Not so much letting fellow crew members die is also part of this mission. Officers and enlisted men are important. Your team and Starfleet personnel aren't really expendable, but don't expect to be constantly worrying about other people while you're slaughtering those stupid enough to cross the mighty Federation. As with most of the game, you begin with a clear assignment that involves killing everyone. Fortunately for you and unfortunately for the characters of EF2, the assignment quickly changes to something far more complex and difficult.

"Clear those decks, Munroe! Alright, all hell has broken loose, Munroe. Get ready for the real beef."

After mopping the floor with trespassing enemy forces -- a fight that culminates with a battle on the bridge where you'll stand side-by-side with the great Captain Picard himself taking on an undisclosed "foe" (likely a boss fight) -- it'll be necessary to don your environmental suit and venture out onto the plating of the Enterprise's hull.

The mysterious enemies are relentless scum. After failing to conquer the ship from the inside out, they've decide to tap into its electronics from the outside in. A bunch of force-field protected electronic devices have dug into the outer hull and must be unplugged. Your gravity boots can be temporarily deactivated for higher jumping, which will be necessary, as Tuvok says, to circumvent the energy shields and to gain a better vantage point over your enemy. Those evil boys are working hard to overcome the Enterprise's electronic defenses. Should you fail to stop their assault in the allotted time, you'll be rewarded with a cutscene depicting your sorry ass team beaten and demoralized in their own brig, held captive by the invaders they sought to defeat. If you do succeed in disabling the hacking devices, you're going to be manning an external cannon of sorts and partaking in a little on-rails action, downing incoming vessels as they try to vainly take out the flagship of the Federation fleet that's not called the flagship for nothing. Like the timed, on-foot portion of the mission, this one must be done with a mission critical parameter in mind, in this case minding the hull integrity of the Enterprise itself.

Let's recap... Get invaded. Follow orders. Move through tight interiors engaging in hall fights and protecting other crewmen. Avert engineering disaster. Go to the bridge. Fight alongside the captain. Go outside the ship in a low gravity environment. Complete a timed mission segment that focuses on vast exteriors, jumping and aiming. Man a stationary gun. Play an on-rails segment keeping ships from obliterating the Enterprise. Take a nap.